Behind the picture-postcard.

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I really like it when I find something surprising in popular and not very original places. Just like when I expect nothing more than picture-postcard view, but experience real life.

Well, I like pretty views, but I prefer to look deeper. I prefer to see the real, complete face of things.

Recently I had a week off and decided to go with my friend to the north of the country, to the Białowieża Forest. The car journey was quite long, so we decided to spend the night in a charming town Kazimierz Dolny, that is very eagerly visited by tourists.

We reached the town in the afternoon, in heavy rain. Despite the bad weather, the place was full of tourists anyway. To my disappointment, the most beautiful tenement houses of the local old town were obscured by beer gardens.

During a short walk, I could see Kazimierz Dolny from a nearby hill. From this perspective, I liked the town much more. It's really charming and full of monuments. There are several picturesque loess gorges in the area, but we didn't visit them due to the lack of time and heavy rain.

In the evening, it stopped raining for a while, and I took some photos.

You don't see it in my photos, but it's a really beautiful place with a lot of history!

The circumstances were not conducive to getting to know this place, the more that we were already thinking impatiently about the purpose of our trip. I promised myself that I would come back to this place someday, maybe in early spring, when it would be too cold for beer gardens.

The next morning, right after breakfast, we hit the road. Unfortunately, the morning was rainy.

Fortunately, we stayed overnight right above the café, belonged to one of the largest Polish chocolate factories, and during breakfast, we could taste various kinds of delicious hot chocolate. It was a great start to the day :)

I thought that during this short visit, the town wouldn't surprise me with anything anymore, but I was very wrong!

We were already leaving when my friend asked me if I wanted to see the Jewish cemetery and the local "Wailing Wall", located a few minutes' drive away. Of course, I wanted to see it!

It continued to rain, which effectively discouraged tourists, thanks to which I could experience this place alone. My friend was waiting in the car.

I didn't know what to expect, and perhaps that's why I was so impressed. Only later did I read about the history of this place.

It turns out that this is not a real cemetery, but rather a lapidary, a kind of monument in memory of the Jewish community associated with this town from the beginning of the 16th century. In the lapidary, there are preserved matzevas from local Jewish cemeteries destroyed by the Nazis. The Nazis used matzevas to pave and strengthen roads, as they used to. Some of the tombstones were destroyed, but many of them were saved.

In the 1980s, the surviving matzevas were collected and a new resting place was found for them. Some of the tombstones were used to build a monument modeled on the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The rest of the matzevas were placed in front of and behind the wall.

First impression - despite the rain and cloudy weather, the place was green and bright. It turned out soon that the wall guards access to the other world.

Passing the wailing wall, I entered the world of death and spirits. There were daylight and greenery on the one side and dark and mud on the other.

On the other side, time moves differently.

Each of the matzevas is a separate story. Human fates are written in that stones.

Lonely tombstones are surrounded by slender beech trees that are like faithful and silent companions.

They all face the wall and the light streaming through the crack.

According to the artist's idea, a crack in the wall symbolizes the fate of Polish Jews. I saw something more. For me it's like a wicket through which we can see into the world of the dead, and those who have passed away can still enjoy the light of life. It's a connection between two worlds, a gate through which each of us must pass sooner or later.

On this rainy day, I could extremely hard feel the symbolism of this place and the burden of human stories connected with it. The stone monuments seemed to speak, asking for a moment of attention and reflection.

At that moment, I felt very intensely, my life passing minute by minute. I was alright with that feeling, and I thought that this wicket was not as terrible as it might seem.

It's definitely one of the most amazing places I've visited last time. I didn't expect such impressions in a small, picturesque town on the Vistula River... it made me realize that behind every beautiful monument or picture-postcard, there are human fates.


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I am the only author of the text and all photos.


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Hiya, @lizanomadsoul here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Top 3 in Daily Travel Digest #998.

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oh, wow. I've already did almost the same trip... Kazimierz Dolny (the same impressions), Lublin and Jewish cemetery, but probablydifferent one than you've visited and today Zamość.
I like pictures from cemetary.

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Thank you! There is something mystical and deeply human in such places. I also was going to visit Zamosc and Lublin last summer, but I didn't make it this time. I'am slowly discovering the east of the country :)

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